São José do Pinheiro once stood out for its lavishness their descendants have taken overThis article is more than 8 months oldSão José do Pinheiro once stood out for its lavishness Even for the country that received the highest number of kidnapped Africans during the transatlantic slave trade About 500 people – an unusually big workforce even by Brazilian standards – were enslaved by one of Brazil’s richest men who owned eight other estates in the region with a 20-room palace filled with artworks and a 48-bed hospital for the enslaved workers – a way to prevent productivity declines due to sickness or harsh injuries a town of 24,000 people named after the farm Remnants of the palace – pieces of columns and walls covered in graffiti and surrounded by dense vegetation – have become a public space named the Park of the Ruins And what was once the headquarters of a slaveholding empire has been claimed by descendants of those who were once forced to work there Cíntia da Silva Photograph: Alan Lima/The GuardianThey recently secured funding from the Brazilian government to transform Ruins Park into a museum and school of jongo an Afro-Brazilian tradition that mixes music “We fought hard to reclaim a land that once belonged to a slaver but now it’s ours,” said jongueira Cintia Helena da Silva “I have been involved with jongo since I was little and an uncle was a master; and now I bring my husband and my son,” she said pointing to little three-year-old Derick Abayomi Da Silva’s family is part of the Jongo de Pinheiral group took control of the space in 2016 and now runs the museum project The Jongo de Pinheiral group Photograph: Alan Lima/The GuardianOn a recent weekend the group organised a festival featuring 18 different jongo groups at Pinheiro on the same vast coffee beans were spread out to dry under the sun The proceedings were opened by Maria de Fátima da Silveira Santos bracelets and necklaces evidenced her authority as the Jongo de Pinheiral’s leader “I came to bless the land I step on,” sang the leader known as Mestre Fatinha The jongueiros formed a circle: two played the drums The lyrics can range from seemingly mundane themes (“Keep my name out of your mouth”) to more political ones that directly mention slavery: “I was sleeping Derick da Silva is the youngest member of his family to join the jongo Photograph: Alan Lima/The GuardianThe performances – which can take hours and sometimes all night – usually involve just two people at time There is no choreography; everyone dances as they wish “Jongo was a way of communication for Black people worshipped the orixás [deities from the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé] Everything happened in a jongo circle,” she said According to Rafael Galante, a historian and ethnomusicologist, the word “jongo” originates from the Bantu language family, to which most of the Africans brought to Brazil in the 19th century belonged. Read moreThere is no consensus on its exact meaning but one interpretation suggests that it refers to a communal space for political Despite incorporating elements found in some central African cultures adding: “It’s the best first-person narrative we have of the enslaved people’s perspective on slavery.” Mestre Fatinha agrees: “Our jongo is the same as it was during the time of the plantation and it has been passed down from generation to generation.” she said: “It’s a banner for our struggle as Black people … Now we use it to be present at spaces like schools and universities Jongo is practiced by at least 14 traditional communities in the Brazilian south-east. Many of these are remnants of quilombos, another Bantu-origin word that, during Brazil’s 350 years of slavery, referred to communities established by escaped enslaved people Jongo is practiced by at least 14 traditional communities in the Brazilian south-east Photograph: Alan Lima/The GuardianAlthough jongo is not a religion Some songs refer to the orixás and Catholic figures including Saint Benedict the African “We always reference our ancestors because we wouldn’t be here … We dance in the memory of them,” said Mestre Fatinha who along with the musician and artistic director Marcos André Carvalho is leading the project to transform the Pinheiro estate’s ruins into a memorial for Black people In addition to the museum and the jongo school a library and the preservation of the ruins which have deteriorated significantly after years of neglect The entire project is budgeted at 5m reals (£705,844 but for now the Brazilian government has only approved 300,000 reals (£42,351 or $54,817) for the development of an executive project Construction is not expected to start until next year “The Pinheiro estate was once one of the greatest symbols of Brazilian slavery’s opulence,” said Galante “And the people who survived all that violence are now claiming that space to transform it into a memory centre A recent spate of violence related to land conflicts in northeastern Brazil has targeted Indigenous people and small-scale farmers raising concerns from activists about impunity in the region a rural worker was killed in the municipality of Codó in Maranhão state the fourth death recorded in 2021 linked to land conflicts in the state according to the Catholic Church-affiliated Pastoral Land Commission (CPT) squatters entered the traditional territory of the Akroá Gamella Indigenous group and tried to build a fence to split the territory the Indigenist Missionary Council (CIMI) said The CPT identified the victim in the July 11 killing as José Francisco de Sousa Araújo, locally known as Vanu, who leaves behind a wife and four children. According to the Maranhão Society for the Defense of Human Rights, Vanu was shot and executed by two men on a motorcycle in the Pinheiral do Norte community of Codó where four people from Vanu’s family were murdered since 2012 and a survivor also claims to be marked for death The whole family had reportedly received multiple death threats in recent years due to land conflicts leading them to seek refuge in Pinheiral do Norte in 2019 Mongabay was unable to confirm whether police are investigating the case the CPT’s Maranhão office recorded 203 conflicts over land in rural areas of the state it has recorded four killings and one attempted killing Land conflicts in the state also often involve Indigenous peoples land grabbers invaded the Akroá Gamella traditional territory They arrived with the alleged purpose of installing a fence to split up the land according to CIMI; the Indigenous community stayed on watch at the site to prevent the action told Mongabay that military police helped fend off the invaders although they didn’t speak with the Indigenous community “They only approached the non-Indigenous people,” he said The military police and Brazil’s Indigenous affairs agency (Funai) didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment Indigenous leaders have remained on the location to keep the invaders away and have called on government authorities to take action to prevent new invasions over the long term Among the agencies they appealed to are the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) The invasion reported by the Akroá Gamella people took place on the Taquaritiua Indigenous Territory, which is still in the process of being officially demarcated. CIMI said the area has been the site of several cases of violence: an attack by outsiders in 2017 left 20 Indigenous people injured Maranhão has a history of impunity surrounding crimes against Indigenous people Most killings of Indigenous people between 2003 and 2019 remain unresolved and are directly related to the land conflicts according to the report “Indigenous Peoples and Access to the Justice System in Maranhão,” published July 5 It attributes the problem to a “silent state structure with regard to the protection of Indigenous rights and a discourse of institutionalized violence in land conflicts between loggers and the original peoples who occupy their traditional territories.” The report was prepared by the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and Dutch NGO Hivos in the framework of the “All Eyes on the Amazon” program It received the support of the Coordination of Indigenous Coalitions and Organizations of Maranhão (Coapima) Greenpeace Brazil and the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) The report sheds light on access to justice for Indigenous peoples highlighting that the judiciary has contributed to the difficulty of achieving demarcation for Indigenous lands It also shows that environmental crimes within Indigenous territories go largely unpunished and that the Indigenous rights to self-determination and self-representation routinely go unfulfilled coordinator of Coapima and an adviser to COIAB said the report provides evidence that supports Indigenous people’s common complaints that are often disregarded by the rest of society She said there’s a refusal to acknowledge patterns of violence against Indigenous people even though they are all connected to the fight for land rights and to environmental and humanitarian issues “We realize that the ineffectiveness of the state the lack of will in relation to Indigenous issues People do not care,” Edilena Krikati told Mongabay by phone “The report comes at a time when we needed to qualify our complaints to have subsidies and concrete arguments to make the complaints.” She said the comprehensive report denouncing the role of the judiciary in the impunity enjoyed by violators of Indigenous rights will help NGOs communities and leaders make official complaints to both national and international organizations she hopes to produce a video explaining the study’s findings to facilitate its sharing with all the locals who participated in the investigation since Indigenous people traditionally communicate orally rather than in writing “I would like to give information back to the communities that participated in the study because it was a lot of leg work,” Edilena Krikati said “I want to transform the complicated formal language of the report into something audio-visual Banner image: Akroá Gamella’s Indigenous people take over its land and stand watch against any attempted land grab Image courtesy of the Akroá Gamella people FEEDBACK: Use this form to send a message to the author of this post The “fortress conservation” model is under pressure in East Africa as protected areas become battlegrounds over history and global efforts to halt biodiversity loss Mongabay’s Special Issue goes beyond the region’s world-renowned safaris to examine how rural communities and governments are reckoning with conservation’s colonial origins and trying to forge a path forward […]